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Amusan made a very big athletic statement at the age of 15 when she won silver at the 2013 African Youth Championships in Warri. Two years later, Amusan showed that her performance in 2013 was no fluke by winning gold in the 100 metres hurdle at the 2015 African Junior Athletics Championships in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. At the age of 18, Amusan had gone as far as making her debut in the All-Africa Games (2015) and won gold in the process. As a freshman at the University of Texas, El Paso (UTEP) in 2016, Amusan made history after emerging as only the second person in the school’s history to win the C-USA Female Track Athlete of the Year since the institution joined the C-USA. Her exploits on the track as a fresher at UTEP saw her grab gold in the 100m and 200m races. Winning silver in the long jump event of the C-USA in 2016 meant the Nigerian was in for business at Texas. She also made the headlines for breaking the 13 seconds barrier at the El Paso UTEP invitational. Her 12.83 seconds in the hurdles beat Kim Turner’s 33-year-old 100m UTEP record. Amusan would go on to make her Olympic Games debut in Rio, 2016.
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Amusan’s first outdoor contest in 2017 saw her run a then lifetime best and UTEP record of 12.63s (100mh). During the 2017 NCAA Outdoor Championships, the sprinter in a record time of 12.57 seconds, won the 100m metres hurdle and would go on to represent Nigeria at the 2017 World Championships in London. Oluwatobilola Ayomide Amusan made a strong statement on the global stage during the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia, clinching gold in the 100m race and bronze in the 4x100m relays. In the same year, Amusan won her first African Championships title after winning the 100m hurdle event in the Asaba African Championships. As the start of 2020 (now 2021) Tokyo Olympics edges closer, all eyes would be on Amusan to become an Olympic champion for Nigeria. Sources: Wikipedia World Athletics Featured Image Source: BellaNaija
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